Innovating with Integrity presents a comprehensive portrait of the local heroes—front-line public servants and middle managers—who are reinventing state and local government, and it offers practical recommendations for innovating successfully.

Based on a study of more than 200 successful government innovations, this book is the first large-scale, systematic analysis of innovation in American government. Sandford Borins identifies the components of integrity that he finds in successful innovators, including the intellectual discipline to plan rigorously and to establish measurable goals; the ability to collaborate with others and accommodate criticism; and a willingness to mobilize both the private sector and the community. In addition to analyzing the common traits driving new initiatives, Borins shows the distinctive differences among six areas of innovation: information technology, organizational redesign, environmental and energy management, policing and community development, social services, and education. This trenchant analysis of what initiatives actually work and why contributes to both the practice and theory of public management. Its practical advice will be especially valuable for front-line government workers, public managers, union leaders, agency heads, politicians, and all concerned with reforming government.

Sandford Borins is a professor of public management and chair of the division of management at the University of Toronto at Scarborough. He is a former visiting professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the author of several books, including Political Management in Canada (McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1992). His research focuses on international comparisons of public management reform initiatives. He has extensive experience designing training programs and consulting on public management for the Canadian government.

Chock full of insights and observations that should be of interest to anyone who cares about how to make American government more adaptive and effective. And it is packed as well with compelling portrayals of real-life public officials facing extraordinary challenges.